Chocolatier Debbie Stephens returns with Once Upon A Chocolate

Debbie Stephens is the owner and operator of Once Upon A Chocolate in Gibsonville.

By Steve Huffman/Special to the Times-News

Published: Saturday, February 8, 2014 at 11:32 PM.

GIBSONVILLE — When Debbie Stephens and her husband moved to Gibsonville almost four years ago, she wasn’t going to get back in the business of making chocolate treats. Nope, she absolutely wasn’t going to do it. Then she and Jack took a ride around town, noticed a building for rent at the corner of Piedmont and Burlington avenues. “I signed the lease that same day,” Stephens said, laughing. Stephens’ business is Once Upon A Chocolate. It’s at 139 Piedmont Way, beside Pete’s Grill. Looking for anything chocolate, from truffles to chocolate-covered clusters? Stephens is the lady to see. She’s got it, and it’s all good. “Yesterday was fudge day,” Stephens said one recent afternoon, recalling the previous day’s hot-selling item. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to what sells.” She said it’s difficult to name her most popular item, but noted, “What I’ve found around here is that anything made with peanut butter sells.” Stephens still experiments, occasionally whipping out a chocolate treat she’s never made before. The public decides whether it’s a keeper. “If nobody buys, I don’t make it anymore,” Stephens said.

STEPHENS, 57, IS a mother and grandmother. Between her and Jack, they’ve got two grown children and four grandchildren. Stephens got her start in the chocolate business in Tampa, Fla., in 1992. She’s a native of Gulfport, Miss., who had worked for years for Lowe’s Home Improvement. In the early ’90s, she was the company’s office credit supervisor for the state of Florida. But she’d had a hankering to start her own business, so she pulled her retirement money and opened her first chocolate store in Tampa. Stephens had no formal training, no degree from a culinary school or institute of chocolatry. Still, she went at it full bore. “Besides,” she said, “I figured if it didn’t work out, I could always go back to Lowe’s.” The business did well, especially during the boom years of the ’90s. Stephens got better from one year to the next at producing chocolate treats. Sales grew. She and her husband were looking for a change of pace in 2010. Jack’s daughter and her husband had moved to Gibsonville, so Jack and Debbie followed. The store Stephens rents was the original home of Hursey’s Barbecue. “Debbie’s great to know, great to have in the neighborhood,” said Emily Boone, manager of Gibsonville’s Burke Manor Inn, a bed and breakfast. Boone said she buys lots of chocolates from Stephens. Some she offers for sale at the front desk at Burke Manor Inn. A chocolate treat is usually left on the pillows for overnight guests. “I really enjoy working with her,” Boone said of Stephens. “She’s always there, always very professional.”

STEPHENS SAID ONLY about 30 percent of her business comes from walk-in traffic. Most of her sales are done over the phone or via email, often after customers have perused the shop’s website. The store’s chocolate has been shipped to the far reaches of the country and globe. Stephens has been busy in recent weeks producing an item advertised as an “Oscar-style statue.” “He’s trademarked,” Stephens said of the Oscar itself, explaining why advertising for her creation stipulates it’s “Oscar-style.” It’s a miniature Oscar reproduction made of chocolate and coated with “luster dust” to give it a golden hue. The little Oscar-lookalike is holding a star, while the trademarked Real McCoy carries a staff. Stephens has orders for 3,000, most of which are shipped to California, likely to be consumed at Oscar parties. Stephens operates Once Upon A Chocolate pretty much single-handedly. She’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Stephens said designing and producing her own chocolate creations reminds her of making arts and crafts, something she’s always enjoyed. “It’s a happy business,” she said. “People don’t bring something back because it doesn’t work.”

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GIBSONVILLE — When Debbie Stephens and her husband moved to Gibsonville almost four years ago, she wasn’t going to get back in the business of making chocolate treats.
Nope, she absolutely wasn’t going to do it.
Then she and Jack took a ride around town, noticed a building for rent at the corner of Piedmont and Burlington avenues.
“I signed the lease that same day,” Stephens said, laughing.
Stephens’ business is Once Upon A Chocolate. It’s at 139 Piedmont Way, beside Pete’s Grill.
Looking for anything chocolate, from truffles to chocolate-covered clusters?
Stephens is the lady to see. She’s got it, and it’s all good.
“Yesterday was fudge day,” Stephens said one recent afternoon, recalling the previous day’s hot-selling item. “There’s no rhyme or reason as to what sells.”
She said it’s difficult to name her most popular item, but noted, “What I’ve found around here is that anything made with peanut butter sells.”
Stephens still experiments, occasionally whipping out a chocolate treat she’s never made before. The public decides whether it’s a keeper.
“If nobody buys, I don’t make it anymore,” Stephens said.

STEPHENS, 57, IS a mother and grandmother. Between her and Jack, they’ve got two grown children and four grandchildren.
Stephens got her start in the chocolate business in Tampa, Fla., in 1992. She’s a native of Gulfport, Miss., who had worked for years for Lowe’s Home Improvement. In the early ’90s, she was the company’s office credit supervisor for the state of Florida.
But she’d had a hankering to start her own business, so she pulled her retirement money and opened her first chocolate store in Tampa. Stephens had no formal training, no degree from a culinary school or institute of chocolatry.
Still, she went at it full bore.
“Besides,” she said, “I figured if it didn’t work out, I could always go back to Lowe’s.”
The business did well, especially during the boom years of the ’90s. Stephens got better from one year to the next at producing chocolate treats. Sales grew.
She and her husband were looking for a change of pace in 2010. Jack’s daughter and her husband had moved to Gibsonville, so Jack and Debbie followed. The store Stephens rents was the original home of Hursey’s Barbecue.
“Debbie’s great to know, great to have in the neighborhood,” said Emily Boone, manager of Gibsonville’s Burke Manor Inn, a bed and breakfast.
Boone said she buys lots of chocolates from Stephens. Some she offers for sale at the front desk at Burke Manor Inn. A chocolate treat is usually left on the pillows for overnight guests.
“I really enjoy working with her,” Boone said of Stephens. “She’s always there, always very professional.”

STEPHENS SAID ONLY about 30 percent of her business comes from walk-in traffic. Most of her sales are done over the phone or via email, often after customers have perused the shop’s website. The store’s chocolate has been shipped to the far reaches of the country and globe.
Stephens has been busy in recent weeks producing an item advertised as an “Oscar-style statue.”
“He’s trademarked,” Stephens said of the Oscar itself, explaining why advertising for her creation stipulates it’s “Oscar-style.”
It’s a miniature Oscar reproduction made of chocolate and coated with “luster dust” to give it a golden hue.
The little Oscar-lookalike is holding a star, while the trademarked Real McCoy carries a staff.
Stephens has orders for 3,000, most of which are shipped to California, likely to be consumed at Oscar parties.
Stephens operates Once Upon A Chocolate pretty much single-handedly. She’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.
Stephens said designing and producing her own chocolate creations reminds her of making arts and crafts, something she’s always enjoyed.
“It’s a happy business,” she said. “People don’t bring something back because it doesn’t work.”